Events and seminars

An online workshop at 2 p.m. Thursday will examine how to improve manufacturing to drive greater overall efficiency with limited resources, and fully integrated business processes.

Manufacturers have put significant effort and investment into improving product engineering. Now the focus is on improving manufacturing to drive greater overall efficiency with limited resources, and fully integrated business processes. Product engineering, however, comprises only a small part of an enterprise’s costs. The larger savings opportunities reside in the roughly 75 percent of a budget that represent manufacturing.

Increased attention on digitalization, significant gains can be achieved by leveraging capabilities like design for manufacturing, early concept planning, and more accurate and aligned detailed planning for production.

The discussion will focus on the trends driving the manufacturing community and how the complete “digital twin” of product and planning addresses these trends by shifting manufacturing earlier in the development cycle to generate faster, more accurate, and lower cost launches.

To register visit http://imcpa.com/events/

Inventor’s club

plans meeting

The August meeting of the Williamsport Inventor’s Club at 5:30 p.m., Aug. 23, will feature Upper Desk inventor Rod Phillips and president Stephanie Phillips-Taggart, who won the 2014 Best of Class Gold Award for their Portable Cabinet Mount for Tablets and Smart Devices during the Homewares Show Innovation Awards at the National Hardware Show, Las Vegas Convention Center. Their product is in over 200 Sam’s Clubs across the nation, a news release said.

Long-time members of the Williamsport Inventor’s Club, the father-daughter team will share the challenges and best-practice they’ve learned as a young startup company providing innovative products that enhance customer’s lives, the news release said. From invention to prototype to manufacture and distribution, they have gained a wealth of knowledge of what to focus on, mistakes to avoid and how to leverage available area resources.

The Williamsport Inventor’s Club is designed to educate, foster collaboration and networking and give attendees the tools, resources and knowledge they need to move their inventions forward.

The Innovative Manufacturers’ Center is host to the Williamsport/Lycoming Keystone Innovation Zone, which has provided program support to the Williamsport Inventor’s Club since its founding in 2007.

Attendance is free and open to the public; however, your RSVP is required at imcpa.com/ event/inventors-club/ or by calling 570-329-3200 ext. 8085.

New attendees are asked to arrive by 5:15 p.m. to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to the start of the meeting to protect the inventors and information exchanged.

Workshop helps with starting businesses

The Small Business Development Center will host a workshop from 9 a.m. to noon, Aug. 23, at 1127 W. Fourth St., Williamsport, to help aspiring entrepreneurs to begin the process of successful business ownership including evaluating business ideas, developing a business plan, and exploring financing options. The presenters/discussion leaders for this workshop are the members of the center staff and a local commercial lender.

Attendees will learn: unique lifestyle requirements involved in owning a business, how to assess the feasibility of their business idea, differences between business organization structures, how to develop a business plan, how to obtain financing, how to market their product or service and the applications and licenses needed to start their company.

There is a fee to attend, and registration is available online at www.lhup.edu/sbdc/training.htm or by calling 570-484-2848. Walk-ins will be accepted if seating is available.

Upcoming additional date for this workshop is Sept. 22 in the center’s main office at Lock Haven University.

Workshop teaches

software program

A workshop on QuickBooks, the No. 1 management and accounting tool utilized by start-ups and small business entrepreneurs, will be hosted by the Small Business Development Center from 9 a.m. to noon, Aug. 25, at the center’s office at 301 W. Church St., Lock Haven.

Participants will receive hands-on information on how to track your sales and expenses, how to customize invoices, how to generate payroll and produce reports and graphs, covering chart of accounts, how to add new accounts, items, customers and vendors, how to track accounts receivable and accounts payable, how to maintain a check register and how to produce reports and back-up your data.

Registration is available online at www.lhup.edu/sbdc or by calling 570-484-2848. There is a fee to attend.

Series of workshops

for manufacturers

Lean manufacturing level one certification is a comprehensive series of workshops that introduces lean principles. Participants learn to distinguish value-added from non-value added activities to eliminate costly waste. As a great starting point for an individual’s and company’s continuous improvement journey, the level one certification is a pragmatic, “hit the ground running” hands-on approach that applies acquired workshop knowledge to the workplace, according to a news release.

Upon completion, each candidate will learn how to “discover” improvement opportunities within an organization and how to capitalize on them in a team based format to create real value through reduced costs, increased cash flow, and improved customer satisfaction.

Upon completion the graduate will be able to: understand how to recognize and eliminate waste, know how to determine value added, non-valued-added, and necessary non-value-added activities, identify the value stream, how it’s mapped, and how to identify the areas that require improvement, develop a road map and an implementation plan, understanding and apply lean tools such as value stream mapping, workplace organization, change management, teaming and kaizen methodology, turn data into actionable information in order to quantify problems and prioritize countermeasures, understand “KATA” methodology and how to use a structured approach to coaching that drives continuous improvement thinking and acting down to the contributor level